It's a good week for … Money

As half of Europe is sucked round the fiscal U-bend, now seems a good time to look at the whole "capitalism is bum, so what now?" issue. Italy and Greece are up to their nostrils in debt. Something non-specifically very definitely bad is happening in the eurozone, and evil bankers (with actual horns and tails) persist in accepting bonuses that would shame Tamara Ecclestone. And she's had her own Channel 5 show, Billion $$ Girl, simply to boast about how much dosh she spunks on fripperies. We're all doomed. What we need now is TV to explain what the hell is going on so we can sleep easy on our cash-stuffed mattresses again.

First it's BBC2's Money season, in which Ian Hislop describes a time When Bankers Were Good (Tue, 9pm, BBC2). In the Victorian era, rich city types spent big on philanthropy rather than gold shoes and diamond pâté. Take note, city boys. Nick Robinson, an agreeable tortoise in a suit, gives us the lowdown on Your Money And How They Spend It (Wed, 9pm, BBC2), tracking the flow of your tax cash in and out of government hands. For some background on the current mess, the season continues next week as spurting finance geyser Robert Peston presents the rather crowing The Party's Over, in which he tells us he knew this meltdown was going to happen actually, and documentaries from Vanessa Engle look at incomes, couples' attitudes to cash and something called "wealth coaching".

But you know what they say: look after the pennies and the billions and billions of missing tax pounds will look after themselves in a major corporation's offshore account. If you really want to seize control of your own finances, it's daytime TV that'll guide you through. Trash To Cash (weekdays except Wed, 1pm, BBC2) and Cash In The Attic (weekdays, 11.45am, BBC1), tell you how to rummage through your junk and turn it into sometimes as much as £20. Eat that, double-dip recession. In Friday's Trash To Cash, the experts help Annette from Surrey raise enough money to send her "on a short holiday". Cue pyrotechnics. Times is tough, people. Make that a small party popper.